An excellent op-ed in the Crimson today by Hemi Gandhi criticizes Harvard and its students for having a somewhat superficial commitment to green energy.
The criticisms of Harvard are, on the whole, more compelling. If the Environmental Science and Public Policy is really so narrowly focused, as Gandhi says, then it’s not the students who are at fault for its small size. It still sounds like a problem Harvard needs to solve, with the sort of green curricular revolution that Gandhi recommends.
Still, there’s no doubt that we students could be more active. Here’s an idea: How about a green jobs fair? Harvard students are motivated by nothing so much as their post-Harvard job prospects, so this is a way to harness that energy towards something socially useful. And “green job” doesn’t have to mean building solar cells, or whatever the President Obama’s definition is. It can mean working for a law firm that specializes in EPA regulation, or working for a green advocacy group, or working in a lab that studies carbon sequestration. I have seen green job opportunities scattered under various headings (the IOP, PBHA) but I don’t think they’ve been gathered under one roof before.